The Port Fairy Report

Coo-ee everyone,

I was going to delay this report a while longer till I have more to write, but who knows when the next good chance will come up. I’ll be in Raro in three days, and according to my guide the prices for communications there are like pre-1997 Israel (read: ridiculously expensive).

The usual recap: took a ten-hour bus trip from Perth to Esperance, spent a few days there (decided that everyone just got to see Cape Le Grand national park in their lifetime), then back to Perth and off to Melbourne on a very comfortable Qantas flight. I’m doing a few days of road-trippin’, bird-feeding, koala-spotting and of course photography, over and around the Great Ocean Road - ending tomorrow back in Melbourne.

Cape Le Grand

Koalas

Perth is just full of koalas. Wherever you go they stare back at you from t-shirts, postcards, keychains, dolls, handbags, backpacks, etc etc. The “highlight” was a backpack shaped like a kangaroo that’s shaped like a koala.

It makes me a bit embarrassed to be a tourist, since the only place you find koalas in WA (besides souvenir shops) is in the zoo.

Now that I’m in Victoria, I got to see some actual live specimens (they’re pretty common around the Great Ocean Road). They’re admittedly very very cute, and that’s the only thing they have going for them. I find that they have about the same size, shape, and level of activity as Itzhak Shamir. They also have exactly two kinds of mood: very passive or very irritated. The Aussies don’t like them very much - they call them “drop bears”, because supposedly they drop down from their tree onto some poor slob and try to scratch his face away. As far as I’m aware, there is no major sports team called the Koalas, and what greater insult can you have?

What’s even less active than a koala? The answer is “a koala on a rainy day”. Looking for shelter is way too industrious for the little monsters, so they curl up in a ball facing the tree, and take whatever punishment nature has chosen to inflict upon them.

Melbourne

I haven’t really “connected” with Melbourne yet. It’s certainly 1000% cooler than Perth (and never mind the weather) - you can walk down the street and just stumble upon a good live music show (which I did), whereas in Perth you might find one if you knew where to look. Yet Melbourne is also more crowded, a bit sleazy, far less relaxed.

I’m sure I could get to like it, and apparently Singapore Airlines, with their booked-out flights, might give me the time to do so. But I got used to Perth after less than 24 hours - which is still a lot longer than Christchurch, where you start feeling at home during the ride into town from the airport.

Once you get out of Melbourne, Victoria isn’t that different from southern WA - I find the people somewhat less friendly (but they’re still Australians so it can’t be too bad), and the countryside a little different.

And I think the souvenir shops don’t carry as many koalas.

Happy holidays! (Shavu’ot or Queen’s Birthday, as appropriate)

- Ron